Iceland battles to resume whaling

Japan and Norway continue to hunt whales despite a moratorium introduced in 1986

LONDON, England -- Iceland launched an offensive to win the right to resume commercial whaling as an International Whaling Commission meeting began.

Reykjavik, which quit the IWC nine years ago in disgust at the organisation's anti-whaling stance, rejoined last month insisting it be allowed to whale again.

Stefan Asmundsson, Iceland's delegation head, told the opening session of the IWC's 53rd annual meeting there is a strong case for "sustainable whaling in some form."

He said: "When Iceland withdrew in 1992 the IWC...had become a non-whaling commission rather than a whaling commission.

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"Regrettably, this is still the case, but there are signs that support is increasing within the IWC for sustainable whaling in some form," he added.

Iceland argues the rising whale population is literally eating into its vital fish stocks.

Minke whales, the smallest of the great whales but which still grow up to a weight of 15 tonnes, live on a diet of shrimps and small fish.

But environmentalists fear that if Iceland wins its case it would give the green light to a resumption of mass commercial whaling and sound the death knell of the IWC.

World Wide Fund for Nature spokesman Stuart Chapman said in a statement: "This is a blatant attempt by Iceland to fatally undermine the IWC.

"If countries chose to follow Iceland's example this could be the beginning of a whaling free-for-all."

Norway and Japan have consistently opposed the 16-year-old ban on commercial whaling of all species of great whale, and in 1993 Norway unilaterally resumed the practice.

A Japanese official on his way to the five-day meeting in a west London hotel described Minke whales as "cockroaches of the oceans."

Japan has admitted using overseas development aid to buy votes in the IWC to lift the whaling ban.

In a memorandum circulated at the meeting, Japan's commissioner to the IWC, Minoru Morimoto, argued the ban on commercial whaling was illogical.

"Japan is not urging other members of the IWC to take up commercial whaling, but we cannot accept them denying us the right to sustainably utilise abundant marine resources in a manner consistent with the treaty that governs the work of the commission," he said.

As protesters dressed as whales paraded outside the conference hotel in London next to a giant inflatable whale, British junior fisheries minister Elliot Morley set the scene for a confrontation while insisting that one had to be avoided.

He told the delegates: "The vast majority of whale stock have not recovered as well as expected.

"Many species remain on the endangered list. We all have a responsibility to rectify the mistakes of the past and ensure proper directions for the future," he added.

Britain, which ceased commercial whaling in 1963 and fully endorses the ban, last month banned Norwegian whale research ships from its 200 nautical mile territorial waters in protest at Oslo's resumption of whale product exports to Japan.